The Story of Zalfie

9: Hospital

The friends had been extremely supportive due to my pregnancy, which I was over the moon with.

Tanya, Jim, Joe, Caspar had gone and Niomi left to feed the cats.

It was just Marcus and Louise still over.

We were laying on the couch all four and a half of us as well as Elsie enjoying Saturday night takeaway when my phone wrang.

It was Caspar and I answered.

Over the phone I could tell he was seriously distressed.

"Caspar?" I said, "what's wrong? Calm down!"

Everyone on the sofa looked confused and Alfie grabbed the remote to turn the TV down, to get in on all the action.

"T-the car c-crashed..." Caspar mumbled under his tears.

"Oh my gosh are you okay? What about Joe?" I asked.

I now put the call onto speaker so everyone in the room could hear and I turned the television to mute.

"I h-have a b-broken arm and c-concussion but J-Joe..."

We all sat there in silence even though only I knew what was going on.

"What about him Caspar?" I asked, my eyes stinging in worry.

"H-he's in a coma."

That was it, I broke down and Alfie grabbed my phone out of my hands still having the slightest bit of relief this was a prank phone call.

"What do you mean Caspar?" Alfie asked him still breathless as to the situation.

"H-he's in a c-coma, he's not waking up Alfie!" He said before he began bawling into the phone.

"Stay calm, Casp. We're all on our way." Alfie told him before hanging up.

I began announcing to Louise and Marcus what was happening.

"Caspar and Joe were just in a car accident."

Louise covered her mouth in astonishment and Marcus remained silent.

"Caspar is fine, he has a broken arm and slight concussion." I then stopped and let out a bawl as my emotions were all caged up inside. "Joe on the other hand..." I wiped a tear from my right cheek using the palm of my hand, "he's in a coma."

Then Louise broke down, she hid her face in a couch pillow and Marcus interlocked his fingers and put them around the back of his head and began to cry.

"Everything will be okay Little One." Alfie told me, wrapping his arm around me.

"But what if it's not? What if I lose my little brother? What will we tell the viewers?" I said to Alfie.

I then began to breathe heavily, the pacing got quicker, I was having a panic attack. It's situations like this that anxiety makes it all worse.

All my friends had lived through this sort of situation before, so Marcus then ran to the kitchen and got me a glass of water.

I took small sips and began to calm down. I was still bawling though, I didn't know if I'd be able to stop.

It still hadn't sunk in. My little brother... MY little brother... May never open his eyes and see the light of the world again. May never feel the burning sensation on your toes due to the sand when your on the beach on holiday. May never grow up to get married or have children of his own. It hadn't sunk in, it never would.

We all made our way out to the car, us four in hesterics.

I let Alfie drive, I was still trying to control my breathing and stay calm.

After a half an hour drive in silence, not even the radio was aloud to play. We pulled up outside the hospital.

When we walked in Caspar told me they were on the third floor in room 313.

The lift doors opened to see Caspar sitting on a bench the hallway. His arm was In a cast and he had an ice pack to his head.

I ran to Caspar who stood up the second he saw me. He immediately wrapped his arms around me as tight as he could. We stood there and bawled, embarrassing ourselves in public but we didn't care.

Caspar showed us to Joes hospital room.

When we walked in he was laying there so peacefully in a never ending sleep.

Seeing him motionless yes was very emotional, but I kept myself together because I knew, somehow he could see me. He could hear me. He could analyse my every move. His frozen body was refusing to let him to move, but I knew- he was alive in there crawling for a way out.